(Newser)
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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria—or as the group now apparently prefers to be called, just the Islamic State—sent a grisly message to other Islamist militants this weekend in Syria by crucifying eight rebel fighters it deemed too moderate, according to a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The crucifixions took place in a town square in Aleppo, where the militants said the bodies would hang for three days, Reuters reports. ISIS also crucified another man in al-Bab, a town near the Turkish border, but he survived.

Meanwhile, another of America's geopolitical foes has joined the fight against ISIS in Iraq. Russia has sent 12 new warplanes to bolster Nouri al-Maliki's forces, along with experts to help get them in the air, in what the New York Times sees as "at least an implicit rebuke to the United States." Iraq has complained that the US has been slow to send its own aircraft, though it is in the process of doing so. (Read more Iraq stories.)